I recently bought 2 of these new Sortainers, but have not yet figured out what I’d use them for. Probably small tool storage, or maybe for small photography gear and accessories.

Festool Sortainer Sys 4 T-Loc with Optional Drawer Inserts

Each drawer has 2 removable dividers, which create 3 almost equal-width compartments. There are accessory kits to add small bins and center zone dividers, at a cost of $25 per drawer. If you want the whole thing equipped with the bins and horizontal dividers for the center, it’ll be $75 extra.

These new Sortainers are priced at $155 each! Yes, I know, very pricy.

But I didn’t pay that much. I paid around $80 each, not including shipping. I ordered these from Amazon UK as part of a larger order, so the freight shipping fee was divided among a couple of different items.

It was a big order, with priority freight totalling around £40, or about $50. But, even if that was just for the Sortainers, I’d have saved money.

My Sortainers arrived separately – less than 2 full days after placing my order, and were perfectly intact. Thus far I’ve only ordered items from Amazon UK and DE with Global Priority shipping, with the assumption that the quicker shipping will result in less jostling and opportunities for damage.

Ignoring shipping costs for a moment, I paid around $86 each. Well, figure $90 if you include currency conversion losses and foreign transaction fees. That’s still a LOT of money for a plastic tool box, but I have had great experiences with Festool Systainers and Sortainers, and wanted to see what these new ones were all about.

With this new Sortainer, I think I got my money’s worth. I’m not sure I would consider them a good buy at $155 though. At this point, I think I’m done buying Sortainers. I have 10 drawered units, 4 of which were sent to me for review a long time ago, and now these two new 3-drawered Sortainers.

It might seem silly to pay so much for plastic tool boxes, but I have gotten great use out of my other Sortainers. I don’t really use them for portable storage anymore either, I use them on my workbench and on a cabinet near my desk. The small drawers hold all kinds of things, and pull out easy if I need them. Maybe I’ll take some photos for you, if anyone’s interested.

I’ll try to show them all kitted out once I’m done. Maybe I’ll add foam to the drawers, if filling them with tools.

I own a LOT of Festool mini Systainers, and use them to hold all kinds of things. I’m starting to regret the investment, but they’ll continue to see long-term use. After moving and working with a different workspace configuration, the mini Systainers don’t really work well with the space. If I could, I would trade 6 mini Systainers for a single Sortainer.

Sorry for the digression, it’s been a tough process finding the perfect storage solutions for my different and sometimes changing needs.

If you have any questions about these new Sortainers, please let me know!

One more plus is that the frames are better constructed. With my other Sortainers, heavy vertical loads, such as if 2 or more or stacked on top of each other, lower drawers can be tough to open. These new Sortainers seem to be structured differently, with vertical loads being less likely to affect drawer operation.

I have also considered trying out a Sortimo WorkMo (Google Image Search), but have my hesitations – the WorkMo is a lot larger and might be tougher to find a use for if not used for my primary tool and parts storage.

24 Comments

If you really want to save some cash Stuart buy the hand truck through Amazon U.K. I save over $45 after shipping and conversion. I’ve also bought several of my systainers as above through them and saved some $$$

There are a bunch of other Festool tools that are far cheaper overseas, such as the Systainer Tool Box, and the dust extractor cleaning accessory kit in Systainer is less expensive than just a Systainer 1 would be here.

I’m growing increasingly comfortable ordering from Amazon UK and DE, but there the price difference usually has to be big enough for me to take the risk.

The Festool Domino looks fairly cheap if you order it from the UK. I know you’d at least need a new cord, not sure if you could covert it to US power, but at $720+ shipping vs $970 it might be worth looking into.

And there are times when I do need to carry a Sortainer with me. Durham cabinets are meant for stationary storage. Even if I added a top handle, slight imbalances could dump all the drawers out if I’m not careful.

I’ve got an Akro Mils unit in storage that I’ll be bringing back.

I’m also investing in more Sortimo boxes and accessories. They’re quite pricey, but more efficient than my current setup.

I bought these from a German tool seller(cbkdirekt I think) when they first came out. He gave free shipping when I bought four because they all fit in one shipping unit, I paid $90/sortainer. I have these stacked in my work truck with systainers of varying size and they work great and held up great to rough roads for a little over a year now, I cannot more highly recommend systainers and sortainers, they are rugged, light and very functional for daily use. If you like these, do the hesitate! 🙂

Is the plastic on these any more durable than say, the L-BOXXes or DeWalt Tough System cases? Can it not take a hit? From the comments in the article, it sounds like these are actually fragile and prone to damage just from being shipped. Not exactly workshop-grade storage, if that’s the case.

I find it kind of bizarre that a company like Stack-on, Keter, Rubbermaid or Stanley hasn’t already come out with some sort of similar but lower-priced solution. I know they make small parts organizers and various plastic tool boxes, but nothing quite like the Systainer with drawers and smaller compartments in them.

Systainers have more flex than L-Boxxes, noticeable when trying to close the lid under certain over-flowing or poorly distributed conditions.

I’d say L-Boxxes are a little more resilient, but they still need to be properly tied down and protected during transport.

They’ll both hold up to bumps and dings.

If I recall correctly, Bosch and Sortimo pay a small fee to Festool/Tanos for use of similar basic design elements.

Modular tool storage still isn’t as popular in the USA as in Europe, from what I’ve seen, which explains why USA-based tool storage brands have been hesitant to come out with their own modular tool box systems.

There are also some combination Systainers, which have regular top-lid compartments, plus a single Sortainer drawer attached to the bottom.

That’s disappointing. I did quick checks on the 3 drawer model and didn’t see any sagging issues. That’s the first thing I checked because of my experiences with my other Sortainers. I’ll try to do some more testing today just to be sure.

I have the same three drawer sortainer and the drawers are loaded up with fasteners and I haven’t any issues with the drawers sagging. I think that the dividers that clip in front to back help with that. Drawer sag is the reason I opted for Festool over Dewalt Toughsystem.

I think recommending to buy anything from Festool would be awkward. $90 for a plastic box with drawers. IMO Festool are the snobs of the tool manufacturing industry. I’ve used a few of their tools. I wasn’t that impressed to go & drop twice the amount of what I bought my Dewalt or Bosch tools for. Must be nice to have money to just piss away on something like this. I’ve got tackle boxes that do the same thing as this “sortainer”. I assure you that I didn’t spend anything close to $90 for one of them. Maybe I’ll slap a Festool sticker on them & they’ll double in value.

I appreciate you mentioning these. I was able to replace three Sys-Storage cantilever toolboxes — which I constantly had to unstack and restack when picking tools for a project — with two of these. It’s not perfect but the drawers are definitely a faster, less aggravating approach.